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IIn June 2003, 25 years after I had first set foot on Corfu, Mark and I became the proud owners of Tzoras House, Episkepsi, Corfu.
We had talked for some time of buying a house abroad for investment and retirement purposes and after returning from The Mani on mainland Greece in 2002 we looked into having a house built there.
Over the years however we have returned many times to Corfu and each time we returned we felt like we were coming home. So many thanks to the builder in Kardamilli who didn't return our e-mails regarding having a place built there and to the Internet for helping us find Tzoras House.
Much to the amazement of everyone we know we bought Tzoras House sight unseen on the Internet based on 4 photographs and a couple of 15 second film clips. We were also not really sure where the village was although I had a vague memory of a signpost at the top of the hill outside Pyrgi on the main east coast road from Corfu Town to Kassiopi. Neither of us was able to take any time off work to see the house before we bought it and so we just had to trust the estate agent and hope for the best. This did not come naturally to us and we soon wondered what on earth we used to talk about before we bought the house!
Suddenly we became avid followers of the currency markets and were horrified at the then ever strengthening Euro, which of course resulted in us paying a little more for the house. However, surprisingly quickly and with no hiccups thanks to our great lawyer Arthoros Zervos, the house became ours and in June 2003 Mark flew over to Corfu for a week to see just what we had let ourselves in for.  A view of the second bedroom
You have not seen us on TV because ours was a success story. We had inquires from two companies who initially showed some interest but when they heard how well things had gone, that we had not got divorced and had found probably the best builder/joiner/craftsman on the island, Tony Hodgetts, there was no story so no TV appearance.
On arrival in the hillside village of Episkepsi in June 2003 which is off the tourist trail but only 8km up the hill from the well served small town of Acharavi, Mark was handed the keys by the agent who promptly vanished. He found the gate was padlocked so he couldn't get in. Things didn't look good.
The photographs we had received did not do justice to the location of the house or the fabulous views from the kitchen balcony. Nor did they give us any indication that the 4 rooms downstairs had no electricity, plumbing or interconnecting doors and 2 of the rooms were simply rough walled store rooms. On his own, in high temperatures and covered in mosquito bites from the resort where he was staying Mark recorded his thoughts on video as he took stock of what we had bought.
At that time he could not envisage what possibilities the house presented and it would be fair to say he was pretty downbeat.
Thanks to friends of ours, George and Debbie, on Catamaran Symphony based in Ipsos, Mark was introduced to Roger Bryant and a few weeks later we received a letter from Tony Hodgetts with sketches and his ideas for the house. As soon as we spoke to Tony our excitement escalated and the rest is, as they say, history.
Phase one started in November 2003. The plan was to completely gut the downstairs rooms making a sitting room, large bathroom and 2 bedrooms leading onto what has now become a fenced patio with a canopy of vines. Tony decided the kitchen upstairs had to go even though we thought we could have possibly managed (I never saw it so I bow to his better judgment) and the upstairs bathroom was to be ripped out. All the windows and doors were replaced, the house was completely rewired plus pipework for the central heating was laid and new water tanks installed.
We were in weekly contact with Tony by 'phone or e-mail and when the photographs started arriving we could see that the job was probably bigger than he originally thought.
Here are some photographs of what Mark found when he first arrived at the house together with before and after photographs so you can see the work Tony and his team did in that first year.
One major hurdle was access. All the supplies, cement, sand and gravel had to be delivered in bags, there was no way a lorry could get to the house to deliver loose bulk orders. Likewise, all the rubble etc. had to be removed by hand in wheelbarrows. The team were working for up to 12 hours a day.
The winter of 2003 was the coldest wettest winter for over 25 years. The villagers lost a lot of evergreens and we had two lots of burst pipes. Rather than bothering us with little details our pipes were simply replaced.
Having removed all the windows and doors the guys were still awaiting the aluminium delivery in January 2004. By now it was sleeting and Tony was vowing never to work on our house again in the winter. The village is approximately 700m above sea level and as a result it is considerably cooler in Episkepsi than Pyrgi, on the coast, and the builders had to hunt round for woolly hats, scarves and gloves.
We were surprised that all the bathroom vanity units, double glazed units etc had to be ordered from mainland Greece or from Italy. Flat packs had not reached Corfu then! This caused a lot of delays and it was suggested to us that we should purchase a kitchen in England and ship it out which we duly did.  The completed kitchen
Due to well thought out designs from Kevin Jones the carpenter, we find we have more cupboard space and a better use of space here than we did in our kitchen in England which was nearly three times the size.
In May 2004 we booked into a hotel in Agios Spiridon for 2 weeks knowing that we would be cleaning, decorating and sorting out the furniture when it arrived from England. We were met with kindness itself from the villagers who through sign language, gesticulation and shrugging conveyed that they were impressed with the work we had had done so far.
We hadn't really discovered the facilities in the village other than Maria's taverna and the post office. We were therefore pleased to find a bakery, a butcher, both of which have since closed, 3 small shops selling dry goods, toilet rolls etc. and a kafenion which doubles as a shop selling everything from chocolate to champagne and diesel. The post office is also a café and any post is delivered to your table at the taverna.
There is a daily service bus at approximately 7.30am to Corfu Town with the return journey getting you back for about 3pm but otherwise because we are off the tourist trail, other than this service bus and a school bus no coaches or heavy traffic pass through the village.
We managed to stay at the house for 3 nights before we bid a sad farewell for another year but not before phase 3 (phases 1 and 2 merged as work downstairs progressed) had been discussed with Tony which began in November 2004.
Before we left we made the mistake of shutting all the internal doors and exterior shutters which caused a major mould problem downstairs. The untreated wooden ceilings just couldn't breathe and at the end of the summer emergency treatment was only finished days before we arrived.
We had a 10-15 year plan to move to Corfu which upon our return to England we reduced to 5 years. By the end of July 2004 Mark resigned from work and we started packing up - we were on our way, all we needed to do was sell our house.
Phases 3 thankfully didn't involve as much heavy labour to rip out the upstairs floors and tile them and decorate the upstairs rooms. The exterior of the building was to be treated and painted, the patio was on a slope so that had to be levelled and fenced. Things looked favourable but then the team was blighted again by a very wet winter, which prevented them working outside for over two months.
However any delays were immaterial as it took us 2 years to sell our house. By July 2006 we doubted whether our plans would be realised and were on the point of taking the house off the market when a couple happened to take a wrong turn, saw the for sale sign and made us an offer for the house.
At the end of March 2007 we sailed from Hull to Rotterdam and drove to Venice where we caught the ferry to Corfu to start our new lives here. We could not be happier with the location of our home both in terms of were it is situated in the village and the fact Acharavi is open all year round unlike many of the resorts which close out of season.
 View from the lane We have found many walks through the woods and the views from the unmade road to Strinýlas are breathtaking. Spring time is a riot of colour with many varieties of wild flowers carpeting the area plus the bright pink blossom of the Judas Trees and delicate blossoms of the almond trees brighten the hillsides.
Likewise the familiar autumnal shades reds, golds and coppers herald a welcome drop in temperature and make walking and cycling much easier. In this respect it is a shame that there are no direct flights to Corfu other than from Athens between 31st October and 2nd May especially when we have had temperatures in January in the mid 20s and slightly warmer in April.
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